Dems aim to register more area Latinos

The Inland Empire has long been a stronghold for the GOP, and some influential Sacramento lawmakers have hailed from the area.

The state Democratic Party aims to change that.

The California Democratic Party has begun the "It Gets Bluer" campaign, which centralizes registration coordination efforts locally and pools resources.

Democrats hope to take advantage of the increasing Latino population, which has predominantly voted Democratic.

"The idea behind our launching the program is that Democrats want to press our advantage in this state," party spokesman Tenoch Flores said.

Ron Wall, the chairman of the San Bernardino Democratic Party Central Committee, said there are 120,000 Latinos in the county eligible to vote who aren't registered. Wall said the party hopes to register as many new Latino voters as possible.

A new Field Poll report indicated Latino voters preferred the Democratic ticket in the last presidential election over Republicans by 9 percentage points as a share of the state's total vote.

Latino voters also make up 22 percent of the state's registered voters, up from 10 percent in 1992.

"I think truthfully (Republicans) are at a disadvantage," Wall said. "One of the things they often say philosophically is they have some things in common with the Latino community, one of them being family, but, ultimately, philosophy isn't going to mean anything when you look at legislation that is pushed by the Republican Party and puts many people in the Hispanic community at a disadvantage."

The GOP, in recent weeks, has begun a campaign to reach out to Latinos.

"The challenge, as I see it, is to interface with the Hispanic community and to remove the artificial barrier of the assumption that we are not like- minded in our objectives," said Robert Rego, the chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Party.

"There have been tactics used by other parties to define how Republicans associate with different ethnic groups, and that division has been part of a concerted effort to keep ethnic groups divided and separated. Our objective is to present our commonalities regardless of race, creed and color. Our platform is that we want to support business so that everybody has a viable and growing level of income that can sustain the needs for the future."

The GOP held its first-ever Latino town hall at its fall convention in Los Angeles last month.

New efforts by the state GOP will include more town-hall meetings and candidate recruitment, said Tom Del Beccaro, the chairman of the party in California.

"A town hall is fine - good for them - but this time it's about pressing a considerable advantage, and they're way behind the 8-ball," said Flores, the Democratic spokesman. "San Bernardino Democrats have enjoyed success with the large Latino population, and it's something Republicans are starting to recognize pretty late in the game. For us, it makes sense to go into a lot of these areas. Essentially, these are Democrats in waiting."

Rego said the San Bernardino County Republican Party is gearing up for registration efforts that will begin in January and go through November 2012.

"It's important we increase awareness of what the Republican Party stands for and reach out to the entrepreneurs and the Catholic base," Rego said.